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Jun 21, 2012 | St. Regis Hotel, Mexico City

In the past dozen years, Mexican banks and corporations have had increasingly easy access to the domestic and international bond markets at lower interest rates and longer maturities. At the end of 2011, the debt securities outstanding issued by banks and corporations in the Mexican market reached the equivalent of nearly US$200 billion, as compared with a mere US$50 billion at the end of 2000. The value of international debt securities outstanding issued by Mexican banks and corporations, for their part, exceeded US$75 billion as of end-2011, up from US$30 billion in 2000.

The rapid growth in debt issuance by private-sector firms has been facilitated by a supporting macroeconomic environment and by a series of significant financial reforms. The latter have included landmark legislation to modernize the corporate workout process, facilitate the pledging and execution of collateral, permit the issuance of novel instruments and the operation of new intermediaries, and the founding of credit bureaus.

However, common assumptions about the workings of the Mexican insolvency regime (the Ley de Concursos Mercantiles, or LCM) are currently being questioned by the creditor-unfriendly precedent set by Vitro S.A.B. In a landmark decision, the Concurso regime delivered an outcome viewed as unfair and inconsistent with prevailing norms and practices in the United States, Europe and other reputable jurisdictions around the world. A panel of expert economists, attorneys and credit analysts will discuss the state of the LCM today and the potential implications of the Vitro case:

- How has the Ley de Concursos Mercantiles (LCM) fared since its enactment in 2000?- What loopholes in the LCM was Vitro S.A.B. able to exploit?- Does the outcome of the Vitro case have the potential to disrupt the easy access to domestic and foreign financing which Mexican banks and corporations enjoy? - Will we see a ‘Vitro Effect?’

Keynote presenter:

Dr. Arturo C. Porzecanski is the Distinguished Economist in Residence and a professor of international economics and finance at American University in Washington, D.C. He is also a Senior Associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). An expert in international finance, he worked for nearly three decades on Wall Street, most recently as chief economist for emerging markets at ABN AMRO Bank (2000-05). Dr. Porzecanski’s research papers include: Mexico's Retrogression: Implications of a Bankruptcy Reorganization Gone Wrong; and Buenos Aires to Athens: The Road to Perdition.

José Coballasi is Director of Corporate Ratings at Standard & Poor’s, leading the corporate and project-finance, bond-rating teams for S&P in Mexico City. Over the last 13 years José has been involved in the rating of hundreds of domestic and international of transactions by many of Mexico’s leading non-financial corporates, and he was also responsible for the implementation of S&P’s recovery ratings methodology in Mexico after a study of the impact of the country’s new bankruptcy regime. Before joining S&P in 1999, he was an equity analyst at BBV Probursa and a member of Corporacion GEO’s investor-relations department in Mexico City.